Dennis Wheatley – What's New (2009-2010)

What's New?

( )

Make sure you visit this page regularly so that you don't miss out on any changes

If you want to be notified when this page gets updated,
just e-mail me and ask to be added to the update list.
(Please note, due to some e-mail servers arbitrarily blocking messages where the recipient is part of a circulation list, please ensure you add the domain 'denniswheatley.info' to your 'safe', 'friends' or similar list in your e-mail programme)

Date	Amendment / addition	Link to new / amended area
23 December 2010	Following our traditional Christmas motif, if you click on the link to the right or on the icon on the left hand side of the Contents page, you can see a selection of Christmas cards sent out by DW. You can also see a selection of cards sent to DW by the various celebrities of the day. In the cards sent by DW section, I’ve added a Christmas calendar sent out in 1936 and a card for 1948. In the cards sent to DW category, I’ve added cards from his World War One comrade J D Moore, Tom Driberg (the man who introduced him to Aleister Crowley), the Earl and Countess Temple, Lord and Lady Derwent, and a further card from Lord Clanmorris, author, diplomat (Ambassador to India), MI5 operative and alleged inspiration for Le Carre’s George Smiley. As in previous years, many thanks to Steve Whatley for providing some of the material. As tradition demands, the icon on the left will disappear on Twelfth Night. A happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year to all the site’s visitors and to all friends of its cause. Charles	Dennis Wheatley’s Christmas cards through the decades
13 December 2010	Many thanks to Steve Patton for writing his customary – and excellent - report on the third Dennis Wheatley Convention, which was held at the Corus Edgewarebury Hotel in Elstree on 30th October. A good time was had by all ! My thanks also to three residents of Lymington; Dan Butterworth, Peter Elgar and John Burry. Dan did some initial detective work which led me to Peter Elgar, the proud possessor of one of Grove Place's exterior doors, and he in turn led me to John Burry, who was shown round Grove Place by DW himself - and who very generously gave me his copy of the sale catalogue. Thanks to all of them I am able to record more details of DW’s last-but-one home. I am most grateful to you all !	The Dennis Wheatley Convention 2010 The Museum / DW’s Homes / Grove Place
3 November 2010	My thanks to Steve Whatley, who pointed out in ‘The Library’ that the latest issue of Book and Magazine Collector lists the top twenty five Occult Detectives of the twentieth century, and DW’s Neils Orsen, who appears in four stories in Gunmen, Gallants and Ghosts, comes in at number sixteen. DW also achieved prominence in The Observer for Sunday 19th September where in Peter Stanford’s ‘The Ten Best Devils’ in their ‘New Review’ section, The Devil Rides Out was ranked third after Dante’s Inferno and Paradise Lost. This month I’ve also added a new page which I hope will be of interest. When he was inscribing presentation copies, DW sometimes offered his own candid opinion of the book (whether good or bad). Over the years I’ve kept notes of these comments, and I’ve now put them together in one location, adding the various supplementary opinions that DW gave in books such as ‘Drink & Ink’. If anyone has any additional material of this nature, I’d be most grateful if they would let me know so I can add it to the list. In this connection, as some of you may recall, we carried out a survey of our own favourites a few years year ago. Click on the link to the right if you want to remind yourself of the results.	Other publications / Critiques / Books & Articles about Dennis Wheatley What Dennis Wheatley thought of his own books DW’s best books
22 September 2010	This month sees the opening of the fourth of the main rooms in the site’s virtual Museum. This Room is entitled ‘The women in DW’s life’ and describes DW’s relations with women from his early youth through to his ‘great loves’ Barbara Symonds, Nancy Robinson (his first wife) and Joan Pelham-Burn (his second wife). It also sketches some of his affairs, which DW described (sometimes in hilarious detail) in his candid autobiography. With thanks to the Imperial War Museum, the University of Leeds, various private collectors, and above all the very kind permission of the copyright holders, the Wheatley family, many of the exhibits are put on display here for the very first time.	The Museum: Room Four The Women in DW’s Life
10 August 2010	We have confirmation of what the dust jacket of the 16th Thousand of Black August looks like, and a confirmation of what the dust jacket of the 10th Thousand of They Found Atlantis looks like.	First Editions 1933 - 1934 First Editions 1935 - 1937
	In addition, a number of new entries have been made in the Hutchinson publicity material section. These include a rare bookseller’s display card for They Found Atlantis (1936), three bookmarks featuring DW’s novels that were produced by booksellers Wallace & Scott in the 1990s, and the two commemorative bookmarks that were issued to attendees of the 2009 Dennis Wheatley Convention by that good friend of this website, Steve Whatley.	Hutchinson & other publicity material
28 June 2010	A photograph of an intact box of figures from the rare second variant of Alibi has been added to the First Editions section.	First Editions 1952 - 1955
	In the pre-Arrow paperbacks section, it turns out that the 36th thousand of Contraband originally had a wrapper. That has been added, and the provisional dates of some of the other early paperbacks have been updated.	Hutchinson’s Paperbacks
	In the Hutchinson publicity material section, a rare news vendor’s placard advertising the serialisation of The Devil Rides Out in the Daily Mail in 1934 has been added.	Hutchinson & other publicity material
	Finally, I’ve added a rather charming curiosity spotted by Alan in The Library – a Matchbox toy Hispano Suiza with very definite Duke de Richleau connections. Thank you Alan - also thank you, Steve W and fellow Library participants for your additional observations.	Other Publications / Other The Library
10 June 2010	Thanks to our friend Iwan Morelius, I’ve added a rather special item to the Other Publications / Other section … a play entitled ‘Supper in Nurenburg’; an intriguing piece of fiction written by the late Swedish actor/author Bernhard Stenholm, in which he speculated what would have happened if DW had interviewed Hermann Goering in Nurenburg prison. Iwan has not only personally translated the play for us, which first appeared in Swedish in DAST magazine in 1989, but also added an introduction and various illustrations. Thank you, Iwan !	Supper in Nurenburg Other Publications / Other
	With another ‘thank you’ to Iwan, I’ve expanded the section of the website which gives details of ‘The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult’. I’ve added a short introduction, inserted a picture of the rather distinctive leaflet that announced the launch of the series to the book trade, which was inscribed by DW to Iwan, and added a list of the series in numerical order to the previous list in alphabetical order.	The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult / Introduction
	Also this month, my thanks go to Jamie Sturgeon for pointing out to me that a recommendation by DW appears on the cover of George B Mair’s 1960s novel ‘Death’s Foot Forward’.	Other Publications … Introductions / Forewords etc
22 April 2010	This month sees the addition of a further four books & articles mentioning DW to the website. From November 1950, ‘Illustrated’ Magazine contained an article entitled 'The Street That Died' about St Johns Wood Park, which had been bombed in World War II and was still derelict. The article included photos of DW in his old house at Number 8. From 1963, we have, thanks to Iwan Morelius, a photograph of his ultra-rare biography / bibliography of DW ‘Tre Decennium med Dennis Wheatley’, of which there were only four copies made, copy number one belonging to DW. From 1971 we have, thanks to Steve Whatley, an issue of ‘Saturday Titbits’ which contains an article entitled ‘What’s the Secret of a Magic Touch’ about DW’s singularly successful writing career. And we also have from 1979, and thanks to Richard Humphreys, ‘Deception in World War II’, a book by Charles Cruickshank, which contains references to DW’s wartime work.	Critiques / Books & Articles about Dennis Wheatley
	Elsewhere, for those of you who have been following Steve Patton’s odyssey as he tries to locate the house which formed the basis for ‘Cardinals Folly’, I’ve just added some of Steve’s excellent photos to the site. Thank you Iwan, Steve W, Richard and Steve P for passing this material on to me; I am again indebted to you for all your help.	The Library / How about this for Cardinals Folly ?
29 March 2010	This month sees the opening of the third room in the site’s virtual Museum. This Room is devoted to DW’s great friend from World War I Gordon Eric Gordon-Tombe, his life, his influence on DW, and his sensational murder in 1922. It includes letters written between the two friends, picture postcards Gordon-Tombe sent DW when he was on his travels and associated correspondence. It also contains details of the sensational murder investigation that followed the discovery of Gordon-Tombe’s body in 1923 and how DW commemorated him in later life. Although DW mentioned Gordon-Tombe in his autobiography, two people I have had the pleasure of knowing for several years have carried out a great deal of research that has enriched this section to a very considerable extent; Ian Sayer, who with his colleague Douglas Botting first broke the story of the D.EGT Manuscript in The Sunday Times Magazine in 1996, and Phil Baker, whose definitive analysis of the Wheatley / Tombe relationship is an important element of his masterpiece 'The Devil is a Gentleman'. I would also like to thank the Wheatley family and Jane Lewis (née Tombe) for their permission to put on general display material which would otherwise only be seen by the collectors who own the material and their friends.	The Museum: Room Three Gordon Eric Gordon-Tombe
12 February 2010	This month a number of early magazine covers have been added to the Short Stories / Extracts section. From 1933 we have Britannia and Eve (with the first appearance of ‘The Notorious Madame Ribereau’), from 1934 Pearson’s Weekly (‘The Girl with Red Hair’; a re-titled reprint of ‘Espionage’), from 1935 Grand Magazine (a reprint of ‘Vendetta’) and Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine (with the first appearance of ‘A Life for a Life’). We also have Christmas Pie for 1937 (‘The Snake’) and 1939 (‘Espionage’), from 1941 a further reprint of My Best Spy Story, (again ‘Espionage’) and from 1944 the World’s Great Spy Stories (and yet again ‘Espionage’)	Other publications … Short Stories / Extracts
	Elsewhere, in the Hutchinson Publicity Material section, another promotional postcard has been added, Black August, courtesy of that good friend of this site Steve Whatley.	Hutchinson and other Publicity material
22 January 2010	Following the success of ‘The Devil is a Gentleman’, Phil Baker wrote the cover story for the December issue of Fortean Times. Congratulations, Phil ! It’s been great to see material relating to DW back on the shelves of the major booksellers !	Critiques / Books & Articles about Dennis Wheatley
	The rare 1934 film of The Forbidden Territory (or rather the U.S. version, which was cut down by 8 minutes) is now available commercially. If anyone knows the location of a copy of the full 82 minute original version, please let me know !	Latest Book News
	Also, although it has no sound, a short clip of DW from around 1970 has recently been released in the Pathe Film archives.	Other Publications / Broadcasts etc
	I’ve put a post in The Library mentioning an article by Jeremy Duns which explores the not inconsiderable influence that DW exercised on Ian Fleming.	The Library / Dennis Wheatley’s influence on Ian Fleming
	A post is also going in The Library concerning an article Iwan Morelius has written about the people he has met during his 67 years in Dennis Wheatley's World	The Library / Iwan Morelius : 67 years in Dennis Wheatley's World
	Finally, I’ve moved the ‘Links’ section on to a separate page and added a link to the Joan Grant official website. As many of you will know, Joan Grant was the bestselling author of various books which she believed told the story of her previous lives. She was a close friend of the Wheatleys, and influenced DW’s own beliefs and writings.	Links

Archived years

« 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021

What's New »